1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital radiation imaging. In particular, the invention relates to the effective construction of optimized imaging areas of various size and shape by combining separate semiconductor pixel detectors side by side in a mosaic like manner so that the shape of the active area of the sensor is made to match as exactly as possible the X-ray beam shape (or shapes) of a specific application.
2. Description of Related Art
A major problem in constructing digital X-ray imaging devices is the manufacturing of large sensor areas. Commercial state of the art large area devices generally rely on flat panel technology. Sensors based on other technologies such as scintillator-CCD sensors or especially semiconductor-CMOS sensors produce higher image quality but suffer from a more limited active imaging area possible to manufacture.
The maximum continuous active area of single detector chip CCD and CMOS based sensors is typically a few square centimeters (cm2). These single detector chips may be combined by mounting them side by side in a mosaic like manner to form larger areas. Such mosaic constructions have been successfully applied in scanning systems in which the active imaging area has a slot shape to form a linear array of imaging elements. Rectangular shape imaging areas of a few tens of cm2 have also been successfully manufactured. Larger rectangular areas of CCD and CMOS based sensors are limited by the fact that one side of the single CCD and CMOS chips is always required for external electrical connections and prevents side by side mounting at that one side. Benefits of constructing imaging areas from separate small detector elements include flexibility to form areas of irregular shape and cost effective production. Prior art sensors, however, have not been able to address these needs.
Some applications may demand different sensor areas for different imaging modes. For example in modern digital dental extraoral X-ray imaging the same imaging system should be able to perform both fan beam panoramic scan acquisition and cone beam three dimensional (3D) imaging. In the scan mode a vertical relatively long slot like imaging area is preferred in order to match the sensor area with the X-ray fan beam shape and to optimize readout speed. In the 3D mode a vertically shorter but horizontally wider sensor area is optimal in providing appropriate cone beam coverage.
In the prior art, to match these partially contradicting sensor area requirements manufacturers of modern dental extraoral X-ray systems either have to use two separate available state of the art digital sensors or one large sensor (typically flat panel) with a sufficient area of rectangular shape to cover both the fan and the cone beam shapes. Both of these options introduce disadvantages in terms of cost, compactness and effective use. The present invention deals with this issue by introducing a novel digital X-ray sensor with a unique irregular shape of active area optimized for both of the imaging modes mentioned above. Dental extraoral X-ray imaging is here given as an example only. The invention can be used for benefit in any other X-ray imaging application with similar requirements of imaging area. The invention can be realized especially well with semiconductor-CMOS detector technology but may also be realized with other technologies such as the scintillator-CCD technology.
Several ideas and methods of constructing larger mosaic type active imaging areas of single detector elements have been introduced and patented [U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,744, U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,191, EPO421869, WO9708751, EP0138647]. The aim of such methods is generally to realize a large enough regular imaging area of either rectangular or slot shape. Most of the presented methods teach techniques to minimize the unavoidable dead space or blind region between the separate detector elements. The minimum gap between the active areas of adjacent detector elements is obviously achieved by mounting the elements in physical contact with each other. While eliminating or minimizing the inter-element dead space of multi element sensors is the ideal for acquiring uniform X-ray images it may not be feasible from the manufacturing point of view to assemble the separate detector elements physically touching each other. In addition to the optimal irregular shape of active area mentioned above the present invention introduces an effective manufacturing technique for multi element sensors. This technique is especially applicable to sensors based on semiconductor-CMOS technology and has specific relevance to CdTe-CMOS pixel detectors.